Or at least the starting quarterback for the James Madison game. But only that game - the competition is close enough between Yates, Cam Sexton and Mike Paulus that Butch Davis is not making any definitive statements. Which means one of two things:
- Yates is an excellent quarterback, Sexton has improved leaps and bounds over last year, and Mike Paulus is a freshman phenomenon. UNC's cup runneth over and the battle is over who will be the MVP of the champion season.
- There's been at most modest improvements at the quarterback position so far, and any offensive gains over last season will come from the new schemes instituted by the coaching staff, plus the line and running back skills.
Quarterback carousels are tricky things. They can work - Durant and Curry managed the 2001 season well enough - but its difficult to manage without stepping on player's egos. I was never fond of Bunting's strict rotation method, which hit its nadir during the Notre Dame game. Unfortunately, it's tough to manage the egos of college kids who have to lead an entire offense if you're swapping them out on a team-by-team or down-by-down basis. The strict schedule kept that in line, but may have underestimated what Sexton and Dailey (now lining up at wide receiver) would do for the team's success. I'm curious to see what will happen if Davis is faced with the same situation, but at this point you can't really judge until you see the offense in action. It'll be an interesting season, either way.
(Nongrammatical post title in reference to this album.)